Page 19 - Winter2009

Letters

For additional protection (and here we proceed to homeopathy), the parent or health provider could administer, shortly
after every inoculation, a dose of homeopathically prepared Sulphur (the mineral), Thuja (the arbor vitae), or Silicea (the
crystal) in the 30 (X or C) strength. The choice as to which remedy is preferable depends on the child’s nature and con-
stitution (consult this writer’s Homœopathic Education: The Unfolding of Experience); but if in doubt, give Sulphur. These
three remedies have, over the decades, displayed great healing powers in antidoting long-term ill-effects of vaccination.
Belladonna, Ledum, or Hypericum, on the other hand, in the 30 (X or C) or higher strengths are often helpful for the more
common immediate ill-effects of inoculation, such as high fever, high pitched screaming, seizures, sleep or eating problems,
and skin eruptions.
For those parents who decide not to vaccinate their child in the conventional manner, there is a viable alternative: ho-
meopathic vaccines. Since homeopathy is based on a “law of similars” (like cures likes), the principle of inoculation comes
to it naturally and, for well over a century, homeopaths have been dealing with childhood immunization with their own
preparations. The preceding paragraph described how a parent or holistic practitioner can minimize the risk of adverse
short- or long-term sequelae with homeopathic remedies. But, carrying homeopathic principles and procedures a step
further, the remedies can also serve as actual substitutes for conventional inoculations. In a clear example of the law of
similars, some homeopaths working preventively choose to administer a “nosode”—a homeopathically prepared extract
of the diseased tissue or discharge of the particular disease—to prevent the child from contracting the illness. Still other
homeopaths prefer to administer a remedy that in its derivation is quite unrelated to the disease, but which has proven to
be a most effective medicine for curing a given childhood illness.
Thus, as a preventive for measles, one could administer either the nosode Morbilinum or the specific curative remedy
Pulsatilla (three doses, usually in the 30th potency); Parotidinum or Rhus tox for mumps; Pertussin or Drosera for whoop-
ing cough; Diphtherinum or Mercurius cyanatus for diphtheria; Influenzinum or Gelsemium for influenza; Varicella or
Rhus tox for chicken pox; Scarlatinum or Belladonna for scarlet fever; etc. As with conventional medicine immunizations,
the homeopathic method can offer no 100% guarantees, but in the experience of homeopathic practitioners, even if not
able to prevent every child from contracting a given disease, the remedies do mitigate its severity. With the appropriate
remedies on hand to assist, the young patient will, as a rule, pass through the unavoidable childhood ailments more swiftly
and easily—and with no serious sequelae. First Aid Homoeopathy in Accidents and Ailments, by Dr. D. M. Gibson, is an
excellent manual for those parents and holistic practitioners who are treating childhood diseases with homeopathy, both
curatively and preventively.
With regard to the question of the effectiveness of the prophylactic use of homeopathic remedies for the more com-
mon childhood diseases, this is one aspect of homeopathy that, due to insufficient data, is not easy to estimate at its full
value. However, in studies recently conducted in Australia, Brazil, and other countries, large groups of children treated
prophylactically with homeopathically prepared nosodes of the childhood diseases are showing these to be undoubtedly
effective, possibly even superior to the allopathic vaccines. An informative article, “Homœopathic Protection Against Epi-
demic Diseases” can be found on the website of an Australian homeopathic practitioner, Frances Sheffield (http://www.
homeoprophylaxis.com), who gives detailed instructions on how to administer the homeopathic vaccines prophylacti-
cally.
In offering safe supplementary and alternative measures to childhood vaccination, homeopathy assists parents and
holistic health providers to make informed choices where the physical and mental welfare of a child is at stake. What greater
peace of mind can we ask for?
Catherine R. Coulter
Arlington, Massachusetts

Catherine R. Coulter has been active in homeopathy since 1960, lecturing and writing books on the subject, as well as
training doctors and alternative practitioners. In her latest book, Homœopathic Education: the Unfolding of Experience,
(available from Ninth House Publishing www.homeopathyworks.com or www.catherinecoulter.org), she addresses in greater
detail, from a homeopathic point of view, the question of childhood vaccination.

WINTER 2009 Wise Traditions 17